By Mark Leiren-Young I was a teenaged reindeer . . . I always wanted to be Santa Claus. When it’s Christmas and you’re in the dressing-up in costumes business, who doesn’t want to be the big guy? But as a gangly teenager — six foot two and maybe 170 pounds, even covered in costume fur […]
Good News! NEB bans oil spills over $950 million!
From The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel: “In the unlikely event of a large oil spill . . . we found that the adverse effects would not be permanent and widespread.” And just in case you aren’t convinced of this by reading it just the once, the National Energy Enbridge Board repeats it […]
Seeing through Lululemon
By Mark Leiren-Young Chip Wilson, founding Big Lulu of Lululemon, recently resigned after publicly suggesting the fabric on his company’s Luon yoga pants was fraying at the crotch because women can only search for Shiva’s enlightenment if they don’t have Ganesha’s thighs. As a man who started wearing Lululemon a few years ago, I wanted […]
A Modest Opinion – Amazon: Primed to Kill
By Nathaniel Moher It’s the holiday season, and I’m sure that, like me, most of you did all your Christmas shopping, or Chanukah shopping, online. It’s just so much easier than leaving the house. (I have a hard enough time leaving my bed. Luckily, Jim Beam ships me crates of the “inspiration juice” monthly.) But, […]
Moore: The mask drops
By John Klein (aka Saskboy) Conservatives are not responsible for your neighbour’s children (although your neighbour’s children will eventually be paying off debts incurred by Conservative Ministers). Conservatives only feel responsible for your neighbour’s children when they street race, have sex, use drugs, or are bullied. Full bellies are definitely not their responsibility, unless it’s […]
Start with coats
By Dave Brindle Last year, at the beginning of winter in Edmonton, where the number of street kids is close to 225, Andrew Gagnon was visiting a friend who works with local at-risk youth. “What can I do? What do you need?” he asked her. “Coats,” she said. Gagnon went to his Facebook page, and […]
A Port Alberni Nativity
By Kevin Annett The last Christmas we were all together hangs over memory like the fog that year in the Alberni Valley. It was a time of gathering, two years and more of labour summoning so many together where once there were but a few. And it was a time of ending. The church stewards […]
Solidarity whatever
By Rod Mickleburgh These are strange days, indeed, for public sector unions. Big developments, not always happy ones, are everywhere. Yet the dearth of labour reporters and collective yawns from editors and the public alike have combined to obscure groundbreaking events that would have dominated front pages not so long ago, when unions were considered […]
Mandela: “It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world.”
Farewell, Big Jack
By Rod Mickleburgh I talked with Big Jack Munro a few days before he died in November. It was pretty tough going. The big booming voice that had bellowed from the podiums of hundreds of meetings was down to a whisper. His legendary fire was just about spent. But some things had not changed. His […]
